When Alabama and Florida meet in Coleman Coliseum tonight for ESPN’s Super Tuesday, the Crimson Tide will still be at a personnel disadvantage. However, the Tide will not face the mismatch in depth experienced during Saturday’s game in Baton Rouge.
Head coach Anthony Grant said in his press conference Monday that sophomore point guard Trevor Releford and redshirt junior guard Andrew Steele will likely be available for tonight’s game, while senior forward JaMychal Green and junior forward Tony Mitchell remain suspended.
Grant stressed again the importance of making good decisions and that the events were disappointing.
Many fans supported Grant in his decision to suspend the players, as did his mentor, Florida head coach Billy Donovan. Grant was an assistant for Donovan at Florida when the Gators won two national championships with players such as Joakim Noah and Al Horford.
“He’s not the type of guy to just plug holes in a leaking ship, because those will come back to hurt you,” Donovan said. “By him doing that, he told his team he was prepared to lose big to win big. You have to go about things a certain way in order to win big.”
Grant did not address his decisions very extensively, trying to push the focus to Alabama’s primetime match-up.
“I would really like to talk about our opponent,” Grant said. “We have a very talented Florida team coming in here [tonight]. We’ve dealt with those situations. As a coach, I’m ready to move forward and I think our players are ready to move forward.”
Moving forward will be no easy task for the Tide, as Alabama has to take on one of the Southeastern Conference’s best offenses.
“From an offensive standpoint, they may be the most explosive team in the league,” Grant said. “Florida hits you with skill. At four or five positions on the floor they can play guys that create matchup problems.”
One of those matchup problems is 6-foot-3 true freshman guard Bradley Beal, who is second on the team in both points and rebounds per game, averaging 14.4 points and 6.2 rebounds.
“He affects winning in a lot of ways for them.” Grant said.
The Gators come into Tuscaloosa as one of the top offensive teams in the country, scoring just under 79 points a game. Florida has five players that shoot greater than 45 percent from the field: Cody Larsen, Patric Young, Will Yeguete, Kenny Boynton and Erik Murphy.
Two of those players, Larson and Young, are shooting greater than 60 percent from the field so far this season. Two more, Boynton and Murphy, shoot better than 70 percent from the free throw line.
“I think our guys are excited to have the opportunity to play against a team of that caliber,” Grant said. “We know that they are coming off of two straight losses, so they will be very hungry.”
Florida lost at Kentucky, also a Super Tuesday game, before losing to the Tennessee Volunteers at home.
